Alexander Tolmer was a Police Commissioner, initiator of the gold escorts, and by all accounts a colourful character with a thirst for action and adventure.
With their carnivals and regattas, bathing-beauty competitions, amusements, sea and sand, beaches were one of the key gathering places for South Australians from the 1870s to the 1950s.
Camel driver Bejah Dervish, highly-regarded for his part in the Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition in 1896, became a familiar figure in South Australia’s far north.
Elder Family of Scots merchants and ship owners saw the infant South Australia as an opportunity to expand their business interests. Alexander Lang Elder (1815–1885), the pioneer, arrived in 1839 and established a trading business.